First, thanks to many of you who let me know you are using this devotional.
I need to know if what we're doing as a church is actually of interest and use- so please, do share your encouragements and ideas. Your feedback is vitally important and shapes what we do!
Second, if you're trying this as a family, keep at it!
It was a total DISASTER last night at my house. Complete pandemonium.
OK, not that bad, but pretty bad.
The kids were squirming. They started fighting over blowing out the candles.
Yes, even pastor's kids are occasionally imperfect!
Robin and I, OK, mostly "I," could have easily become really mad.
Yelled at the kids;
Told them to sit down, shut up and listen;
Had everyone crying;
Thrown the bible on the table;
Walked out of the house, never to return!
It didn't get that bad.
But we had to stop.
We ended up having a big talk with the kids.
We reassured them of God's love.
We reassured them of our love.
We talked to them about what's important to our family.
(Loving God, loving one another, loving our neighbors.)
We went back to basics.
We talked about the importance of having intentional time as a family in bible reading, conversation and prayer.
We pulled the 5th commandment card- "honor your father and mother."
Then we told them that we will be held accountable to God for how we parent them.
Here's the point for family devotions-
Go with where God leads you. It is about being intentional with the time, but also being flexible enough go where you need to go as a family.
Tonight we're praying for a much more pleasant reading and conversation with the kids.
If it works out that way, great.
If it doesn't, great.
We'll still be having a meaningful and fruitful time with the kids.
I totally have to respond to this one. I was going to email you anyway to thank you for having the divinely inspired foresight to prepare something like this for us a church body to practice during holy week--for providing a tool to help me as the spiritual head of the house to lead my family in something positive, uplifting, and encouraging. I'm definitely not always a success at it, but I try my best.
ReplyDeleteWe are doing ours during dinner. We have a candle holder that just happens to hold seven tea lights and spans much of the length of the table. The yellow one is in the middle. One child listens. One gets distracted. Reminds me of something: one said "remember me when you come into your kingdom"... the other insulted him. Not that one of my children is headed down the path of destruction, but rather that, like many people hearing a story, one understands, and one needs to learn. Like the two men in a field - one will be taken, one left behind; two women grinding with a hand mill - one taken, one left behind. One will get it. One will not. But who among us would not "leave the ninety-nine and go to look for the one that is lost?" Or in this case, set aside the one who gets it, to help the one who does not? How fitting that you had the opportunity to pause with your family and take the time to help the ones who were lost. What an example of Christ-like leadership.
Saturday will be a great day, because God the Father is the God of the lost, of the sinners, of the hurting--of the ones in the dark. It's at our darkest times that God's light is needed most. Saturday must have been the darkest day in the history of mankind. But for us, it will be the day that as a family, we will re-read each of the stories of the week, but from a children's bible so that my two-year old and four-old will really get it. It will be a time for us to pause as a family and recognize what it is that God really has saved us from. Sunday will be the day to light the yellow candle... to "take the red pill" and see what God really has in store for us in the future! Sunday will be a day to feast, to have our roasted lamb, and to celebrate the resurrection, the Saviour, the new exodus, and to do what Jesus commanded us to do: to do this--to celebrate Passover--in remembrance of him. No longer is the feast to celebrate the first exodus, the pass-over of the angel of death who came to destroy the firstborn, but to celebrate the second exodus, the resurrection of the firstborn of creation, and to give thanks for the blood of the new Lamb that brought salvation to the world.
Thank you for encouraging us to do this.